Power Lifting looks like a lot of fun and congrats on the PRs. My training is going pretty well. Good luck with yours as well. It looks like you can already lift more (those lifts at your meet looked easy for you). I think if I can get my shoulder to handle the position for back squats I may try power lifting myself.
Bro, I’m pretty upset that you never responded to my PM. Fuck that.
Kidding aside, congrats on winning your weight class. Funny how things evolve in less than a year’s time.
Let’s see… your lifts were 500/335/465 at 275 lbs. Give me a year to put on 100 lbs of body weight, and I guarantee I’ll have better numbers 
So as of 3 May 2010 I am back on 5-3-1. Starting off on my 6th cycle. I took a break from lifting entirely after my PL meet for a week, tried the Get Lean Quick Scheme before my vacation in Jamaica (it didn’t work so hot, and I was miserable), didn’t lift for the week i was on vacation, then and started my second V-Diet in mid March taking a week or two to test run the workouts beforehand. So for the past 2 months I’ve been on a reduced calorie diet with primary focus on conditioning workouts with high reps. Pretty fucking excited to get back to heavy weight and low reps.
I debated how to program my working weight as I couldn’t decide if I should just pick up where I left off, to retest my maxes and recalculate from there, or just back off my working weight 10% as if resetting.
I decided to just pick up where I left off. I didn’t want to retest my maxes and have them come out higher than what I was using before (which I think would be likely) since the name of the game on 5-3-1 is to start too low. On the other hand, I felt confident that I wouldn’t need to back off 10% as I feel like I got a little stronger on my diet.
This time around, I’m going to pay a little bit closer attention to my diet. I was eating a lot of shit food leading up to my meet, and even though the weight on the bar was going up every workout, I was getting too fat. My goal this time around is to get stronger while remaining somewhat lean.
Diet is primarily going to be paleoish with close adherence to 90%, with the majority of my carbs packed into the peri-workout window and tapering off throughout the day. I’m obviously not going to sweat the occasional cheesecake or pizza, but will just not be making these part of my every day diet. I’ve found that my taste buds seemed to be reprogrammed more after this diet than last years (or maybe its all in my head), but the stuff that I’m craving to eat in large quantities now is healthy stuff.
I will also be doing conditioning this time around. I know I had originally planned to last time, but didn’t want to impact my recovery. Basically, I was living south of Vag. In an effort to move north of the holiest of holes, I will be doing hill sprints twice a week after leg day (I vomitted a little in my mouth just typing that) and a V-Burn on the weekends. Sometimes instead of hill sprints I will drag a sled, do some HIIT, do a Tabata workout, or something else that could be construed as awesome. But for the most part, it will be hill sprints.
I’m also going to focus more on my weak areas for these upcoming cycles, at the expense of more weight on the bar. I have some awful shoulder inbalance issues on my right shoulder, my glutes and hammies don’t fire properly, I have a weak upper back, a weak core, and a frightening Anterior Pelvic Tilt. My assistance work is going to be geared towards fixing these issues. I’m also going to be doing bicept curlz once a week hangs head in shame. I want to give this a try and see how a Bodybuilding type assistance template works for me as I think it will help me bring up my weak areas and eventually allow me to put more weight onto the bar.
Is this a lot to ask for? Yeah, probably. But I’m going to give it my damndest and do it for as long as I can. Will I probably impact my gains by doing conditioning, eating less, and not focusing on PL specific assistance movements? Probably.
But if I go out and do 5-3-1, I’m going to get stronger. If I go out and run hill sprints, I’m going to get leaner and improve my recovery. If I go out and eat cleanly and time my carbs right, I will stay lean and probably gain some mass. I’m just going to go kick ass in the weight room, kick ass on the hills, and kick ass in the kitchen to try and be the biggest, baddest, leanest mother fucker I can possibly be. I don’t really see a downside!
Alright, there it is. Fucking excited to get back onto the 5-3-1 bandwagon. Do work.
Nate
Cycle 6 - Wave A
Workout 1 - Monday 3 May 2010
Deadlift (3x5): 265, 305, 350 (10)
Glute Ham raise (5x): 10, 8, 7, 8, 8
Ab Coaster (5x @20#): 10, 10, 8, 8, 10
Deadlift felt pretty decent. I just switched my stance up to a semi-sumo (close stance) with my legs inside my knees, so given that and the fact I hadn’t gone real heavy in a while, I took it a little easy on this set. I think this pulling style will be the best transition for me in the long run.
I figured out I was doing the GHR wrong after watching videos on EFS. I was treating it more like a back extension (going from parallel to a -45 degree bend) whereas the proper way is to go from parallel to a +45 degree bend. Oops.
Then finished off with the ab coaster. Ghey. I didn’t run hills this evening because it was raining outside and I had gotten to the gym really late.
Workout 2 - Tuesday 4 May 2010
Bench (3x5): 195, 225, 255 (10)
Rows (3x10): 55x2, 55x2, 55x2
Kroc Rows (90): L:15, R:15
Dip (5x): 10, 10, 7, 10, 7
Triceps Pushdowns: 65#->50, 50#->25
I was very excited to get to the bench because I felt like I had a big PR in store. I was wrong. It looks like the diet affected my bench a little more than I thought and I was 3 reps away from a PR. I had a nasty cut on my chest right where the bar sits at due to an unfortunate drunken golfing incident last weekend, which threw me off a bit, but I just didn’t feel like I had a lot of strength here. I’m hoping it is just due to not doing the motion in a while (V-Diet calls for DB Bench) and will come back up quickly.
Rows and Dips were fine. I did triceps pushdowns as a finisher to test out some stuff I’ve read about flushing the muscle with blood at the end of a workout, and truthfully didn’t feel a thing so I’m not sure if I am going to keep doing it like that or not. Regardless, I am going to move it to OHP day since bench day is already heavily tricep dominant and move in bicept curlz in its place.
Workout 3 - Thursday 6 May 2010
Squat (3x5): 280, 320, 365 (10) <-New PR!
Reverse Hyper (5x): 45#->10, 10 90#->10, 10, 10
Hanging Abs (5x): 8, 7, 6, 4, 5
Safety bar Squat (225): 20 (11, 3, 6 with brief pause)
I was pretty disappointed in my workouts so far leading into this, so the new PR in squat felt really awesome. I was beginning to think I may have reset my weights, but I think I made the right decision to just pick up where I left off. My form on everything should come around quickly and the weights should keep moving up.
I did this workout at World Gym in San Diego, which is an awesome PL friendly gym there. They had a mono, a reverse hyper, a sled, and all kinds of PL-friendly equipment. Pretty awesome atmosphere for the workout.
For my finisher, I tried to do 20 reps with the safety squat bar. I had never used one and it was just awkward. I’m pretty sure 225 should have been pretty easy here with a regular bar, but I was really hammered from the rest of my workout, so its hard to tell.
After the workout, I went out into the parking lot and did sprints with the sled attached. I marked off about 40 yards and did two warmups, then 6 drags with 25# on the sled, and 4 drags with 50# on there. It was really tough, but I think I could have used a lot more weight. Didn’t really know what to expect from the sled though. I think I may actually opt to push it with a lot more weight on it next time as opposed to sprinting with it.
At any rate, fucking awesome workout.
Workout 4 - Friday 7 May 2010
OHP (3x5): 115, 130, 150 (9)
Pullups (Pyramid): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Facepulls (5x10): 50#->10, 60#->10, 10, 10, 70#->10
Dips (5x): 5, x, x, x, x
So after Thursday’s squat & sprint workout, my entire body felt blasted. I almost had to crawl into the gym. That being said, i was still disappointed in my reps for OHP. I set a goal of between 10-12 and didn’t hit it. I’m going to give the program another wave (or maybe 2) and if I think my starting weights are, in fact, too heavy, then I am going to reset them and go from there for the next cycle. We’ll see. Its just really hard to gauge since I’m coming off a diet and haven’t done these motions in a while.
My body was so wrecked over the weekend that I didn’t do the V-Burn challenge for the week. Gotta give a week or so for the DOMS to subside a bit. Here it is on the following Monday (after Thrusday’s nut busting workout) and I’m STILL a little sore. FML
Cycle 6 - Wave B
Workout 1 - Monday 10 May 2010
Deadlift (3x3): 285, 330, 370 (9) <-New PR!
Modified GHR (5x): 9, 10, 10, 8, 6
Ab Wheel (5x): 8, 7, 7, 7, 6
Deadlift (1x20): 225
Conditioning: Treadmill pushes. 4 degree incline. 8 sets @ 15 seconds each. 45-1:15 rest in between each set.
New PR in Deadlift and it felt pretty easy. Pretty sure I had 10 if I wanted to push it. I used the lat pulldown machine as a modified GHR since there wasn’t one at the gym.
It ended up being alright since I’m not strong enough to do real GHRs and was able to use my hands to help push me back up and catch myself ont he way down, which helped a lot. Decided to do a 20 rep finisher for my last exercise.
For these finishers I’m going to just add weight every time I’m able to get 20, and if I’m not able to get 20, I’ll just do the same weight the following week until I can. Not sure how long I’ll be able to go on a linear periodization like that, but I should be able to add a good amount of weight before stalling. Plus its awesome for conditioning!
Workout 2 - Tuesday 11 May 2010
Bench (3x3): 210, 240, 270 (10)
1 Arm DB Row (3x10): 55, 55, 55
Krock Row (1x20): L->90, R->90
BB Curls (4x5): 95, 95, 95, 95
Bench (1x20): 185
Pretty close to hitting a new PR in bench but just didn’t have it this week, though I felt a lot stronger than last week. I fully expect to hit a PR next week in my 5-3-1 week.
Was able to grind out 20 reps on the Kroc Row this week, going to shoot for 25 reps next week. I’d like to go up 5 lbs per cycle on these with 15, 20, 25 rep progressions through the cycle. Finisher was 20 reps on bench at 185, which left me breathless.
Workout 3 - Thursday 13 May 2010
Squat (3x3): 300, 340, 385 (7)
GHR (5x): Unknown
I got to the gym pretty late this evening after sitting on a plane all day long and really wasn’t feeling it. Still set a rep PR at 385 in squat, and got some sets of GHR in (I think 5). This was on the rael machine and was very difficult. I may do the modifier version of these on the lat pulldown machine for a while until I can do the reps properly with good form.
Workout 4 - Saturday 15 May 2010
OHP (3x3): 125, 140, 160 (10) <-New PR!(?)
Facepulls (5x12): 60->10, 50->12, 12, 12, 12
Lat Pulldown (6x8): 50, 50, 60, 60, 60, 70
Dip (6x8): 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
So I ~set a new PR tonight in OHP. Me claiming the 10th rep was VERY generous as I’m sure it was pretty ugly with a bit of back bend and a bit of initial push-press action, so I should probably just claim 9. But I’m not! haha. Need to work on my form on the facepulls as I’m not really sure how to properly perform them to get the desired effect.
Lat pulldowns and dips were done as supersets. Weight on lat pulldowns was retardedly low as I was trying to actually engage my lats in the movement and using the advice in this week’s issue of T-Mag (Issue 626: Pullup Strength - The Missing Link).
It talked about how most people are weakest on pullups at the bottom part of the lift because they just can’t engage their lats properly and to do so, you need to establish an excellent mind muscle connection. I really tried to engage them as I was pulling tonight and feel like I was really hitting them properly. We’ll see by how sore I am tomorrow!
Slacked on conditioning this week as I didn’t feel like moving after my skwaht session on Thursday. I am going to do a V-Burn Challenge on Sunday, so that will make two conditioning workouts for the week.
Overall, it was a good training week with 2 new PR’s. Now if I can just catch that new bench PR!
Cycles 6 - Wave C
Workout 1 - Monday 17 May 2010
Bench (531): 225, 255, 285 (9) <-NEW PR!!!
1 Arm DB Row (3x10): 60, 60, 60
Kroc Row (1x25): R: 90x25, L: 90x25 (paused at 20)
BB Curl (5x5): 95, 95, 95, 95, 95
Bench (1x20): 190 (18)
Finally caught the bench PR. Rows were good too. Couldn’t quite hit 20 at 190 on my finisher set.
Workout 2 - Wednesday 19 May 2010
Deadlift (531): 305, 350, 390 (1)
Wanted to pull a max, so I moved from 390 to 440 and finally to 495. It was tough but felt awesome to finally get 5 plates off the ground:
Fuck yeah!
Packed it up and went home after the pull
Workout 3 - Friday 21 May 2010
Overhead Press (531): 130, 150, 165 (9) <-New PR!
Lat Pulldown (6x8): 60: 8, 8 70: 8, 8 80:8,8
Dips (6x8): Body: 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Facepulls (5x12): 50, 50, 50, 50, 50
Weight felt good on OHP. Not much more to say here.
Workout 4 - Saturday 22 May 2010
Squat (531): 320, 365, 405 (7) <-New PR!
GHR Modified (5x): 8, 8, x x x
Took the rest of the workout easy and went home early (dont remember why).
Conditioning was shit for the week.
So overall, I set a new PR every single time I walked into the gym this week. Pretty fucking awesome for my first cycle back. I think that was the first time that’s happened since my very first week on 5-3-1.
Cycle 6 - Wave D
I pretty much shat the bed on deload this cycle. I did my DL deload (165, 205, 245) on 24 May 2010 with some back extensions and ab wheel for accessory, and I think I did my bench deload that week too with some very light accessory work. Didn’t get my squat or OHP deload workouts in since I left to go back home to SWVA for the Memorial Day Holiday and was just letting it slide.
Cycle 6 Recap
7 New PR’s set this cycle. Awesome! I’ve put back on some of the weight lost on V-Diet. Not sure how clean it is as my diet has been pretty spotty. I’ve not been really following the modified peri-workout protocol very well this cycle either. Need to do a better job of tracking weight and also stop slacking on my conditioning. More food is needed as well to prime growth.
Squat PR: 499 [+74 from start, +19 from Cycle 5]
Bench PR: 370 [+60 from start, +6 from Cycle 5]
Deadlift PR: 495 [+90 from start, +15 from Cycle 5]
Overhead Press PR: 213 [+43 from start, +1 from Cycle 5]
Cycle 7 - Wave A
Workout 1 - Tuesday 1 June 2010
Deadlift (3x5): 270, 315, 355 (12) <-New PR!
OHP (3x5): 115, 135, 155 (9)
Facepulls (4x8): 100, 100, 100, 100
Pulldowns (6x8): 80: 8, 8 90: 8, 8 100: 8, 8
I absolutely destroyed my previous rep and calculated rep total on deadlift. I think I needed 11 for the PR but pulled 12 instead, and I was definitely good for 13-14. The weight was flying off the ground. Its looking like my extra glute&ham work (activiation + GHR machine) is paying off. I’m expecting my DL to start taking off. I’m actually in a race to 545 over on the PL forum if anybody wants to go check it out
OHP wasn’t so hot today. Probably just because I had just done DL’s (was compressing the week since the gym closed early on Memorial Day).
I’ve been seeing an ART specialist chiro for my right shoulder issues and I think we’ve got them all sorted out now (after 10 or so visits!). It seemed that I was really tight across the chest which was pulling my shoulder into an uncomfortable position. I am going to start doing a better job of stretching after my workouts to keep that kinda stuff from happening. Now that the shoulder issue is resolved, I’m hoping it will manifest with an increase in OHP!
Workout 2 - Thursday 3 June 2010
Bench (3x5): 200, 230, 260 (11)
I needed 13 for a PR and my warmup sets were feeling good so I thought I would hit it, but that didn’t go as planned once the set started. For some reason the weight felt very heavy. I set a new rep PR with 11, but didn’t get a calculated max PR here. I hadn’t been sleeping well this week and I think that could have something to do with it as well. I didn’t feel like lifting so I skipped the rest of the workout.
Workout 3 - Friday 4 June 2010
Squat (3x5): 285, 325, 370 (6)
FUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk…Looks like I’ve injured myself again. I’m thinking its a sprained back. My warmups felt absolutely terrific and I was 100% positive I was about to crush a huge new squat PR. I got lined up under the bar and pounded out about 4 easy reps when I felt something uncomfortable in my back. I made it to 6 and stopped the set short. Sat down and could hardly get back up my back tightened up so fast. Not exactly sure what’s wrong. it doesn’t feel like a slipped disk which is good.
I really have no idea what happened here. My belt was wayyyy too tight and very uncomfortable in cutting into my hips, which could have distracted me into losing my tightness. I like the belt real tight for DL’s but it looks like i’m going to have to loosen it up a bit for squats (harder than it sounds since its a lever belt that requires screw driver). I also decided to squat without shoes for some reason in this workout, but I don’t feel as if that was the problem.
Either way, out of commission for a few days. Not debilitating pain, but definitely impedes my movement nonetheless. Hoping to make a quick recovery.
TRT & Bloodwork
On Friday 4 June 2010 I went to a doctor appointment that may have changed my life forever. For years now I have been experiencing shitty problems with libido, concentration, mood, and just general feeling of shittiness. I have been tested for ADHD to no avail and also seen a urologist. Nothing seemed to work.
I had been reading the TRT replacement section of the site for quite some time and suspected Low T and/or high E2 but I had never gotten the necessary bloodwork to confirm or deny. Well, I figured its time to do something about it.
The doctor was pretty much useless and expressed skepticism that I would be low T. He instead thinks I have sleep apnea which is causing my problems and arranged for me to undergo a sleep study sometime in the near future. So it looks like i have a date with a tent coming up soon. Awesome.
The doc WAS a good sport and gave me some of the blood tests that I had been wanting to get. When I went down to visit Ashley in NC this weekend, I went to the hospital near here for the blooddraw and have gotten back some of my results. The most disturbing of which (that I might add I completely expected) was E2@48 ng/mL (refrence range < 52). I haven’t gotten a lot of the results back yet (including test and thyroid).
I have a thread about it over in the TRT Replacement forum, but basically what this means is that my estrogen levels (more specifically, estradiol or E2) is sky high for a male. Optimal is thought to be about 22 ng/mL. High estrogen can cause many alarming things to happen, but mostly related to me is disproportionate fat storage (stomach and ass, lean elsewhere), bad temper, depression, loss of libido, and even can suppress natural testosterone production.
The problem is that since its technically “in range”, most doctors will be hesitant to treat it (I’m pretty sure mine falls into this category). They just have no concept of what’s optimal. So I am self medicating. I ordered some anastrazole (an aromatase inhibitor) from an online research chemical company and am going to start taking about 1 mg/week and see how that improves my condition. I intend to have bloodwork taken 4-6 weeks after beginning to see how well I am dialing it in.
Just thought I would share. Hopeful to put this issue to bed in the very near future.
Good luck with the blood, man. I got the news that I was basically going to die by 40 if I didn’t get my cholesterol in order. One thing led to another and I’m on 5-3-1 as well.
Best of luck to you…364 days of the year. Go Hoos!
hahahah well played sir. What are you taking for your cholesterol? Is the doctor a dinosaur that still thinks dietary cholesterol is related to blood cholesterol levels? If so, you may want to get a new doc.
There’s lots of good over the counter supps to raise your HDL (which, along with LDL, most progressive doctors now believe is the true indicator instead of total cholesterol). What were your HDL, LDL, and TC numbers?
Also, how is 531 going for you? Do you have a log?
I’m taking a ton of fish oil and 1g Niacin each day for the cholesterol. I switched doctors so my wife and I would see the same person and the new guy says my numbers are OK since I’ve been working out for the last year and a half.
July 2008 / July 2009
LDL 127 / 151
HDL 28 / 38
Trig 251 / 27
VLDL 50 / 50
I’ve only just started Cycle 2 of 5-3-1. I’m happy with DL and OHP so far, but Bench and Squat are not working out as well as I had hoped. I’m going to continue for at least two more complete cycles so that I can identify some real process behavior before I think about whether I will stick to it or switch. I just pulled 380x8 and 355x10 and pressed 160x10, so I’m pretty stoked about those. I’ve got bench tomorrow and I ate a lot of carbs today so I’m hoping for something good.
I’ll be watching your log. I’m a competitive sonofagun and I can’t have a Hokie beating me…now I just need to add 50 lbs to my bench and squat…
Here’s my log: Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness
So its been forever since I’ve updated this log. I just can’t stay motivated to keep it up to date. The lack of PR’s due to my back injury in Cycle 7 certainly contributed to that. Here it is 29 June and I’m still feeling weak in the back. Haven’t deadlifted much at all since injuring it and have been taking it very light on the squats too. Going to make a focused effort over the next couple weeks to rehab the shit out of it.
Anyways, here is my progress to get me up to date:
Cycle 7 - Wave B
Workout 1 - Tuesday 9 June 2010
Bench (3x3): 215, 245, 275 (9)
Inverted Rows (5x): 10, 8, 8, 6, x
Bench (5x10@185): 10, 10, 10, 10, 8
Pullthrus (2x15): Some, Some
First workout back since the injury. Decided not to do Deadlifts on Monday because my back was still screaming (ended up doing them later on in the week). Did some pullthrus to get blood pumping into my back.
Workout 2 - Thursday 10 June 2010
Deadlift (3x3): 295, 335, 375 (1)
Crunch Machine: Some
Leg Raises in Captains Chair: Some
Wanted to go in today and keep it light. I had intended to just do my warmups and not push deadlift at all, but I was feeling pretty decent after my warmup sets and decided to try and hit the working sets as well. First two felt good, but for some reason when I got to the last set I was fried and just picked it up once. did some abwork to try and push the disc back into place (that worked last time I injured it).
Workout 3 - Friday 11 June 2010
Overhead Press (3x3): 125, 145, 160 (11) <-New PR!
Lat Pulldown (9x8): 95, 95, 95, 110, 110, 110, 125, 125, 115
OHP (5x10@1110): 10, 10, 8, x, x,
Facepulls (4x8): 100, 100, 100, 100
So I managed to tear through a new PR in OHP while injured, which felt good. This was an excellent workout. I got some good activation work in for my lats and that movement is coming along pretty well.
Workout 4 - Sunday 13 June 2010
Squat (3x3): 305, 350, 395 (3)
Leg Curl (5x10): 130, 130, 115, 115, 100
Squat (5x10@210): 10, 10, 10, 10, x
Ab coaster (5x10): 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Took it easy on squat today, but had a ton of reps in there if I wanted them. For some reason, even though squat is what injured me, squats are feeling ok. Still a bit timid about pushing them right now though. Going to start picking some battles coming up, just not yet!
Overall this wave was pretty garbage. The OHP PR was nice, but I would trade that in for a healthy back in a heartbeat.
Cycle 7 - Wave C
Workout 1 - Monday 14 June 2010
Bench (531): 230, 260, 290 (8)
1 Arm DB Row w/ Fat Gripz (3x10): 60, 60, 60
Krock Row (1x15@95): R: 15, L: 15
Bench (5x10@185): 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 [First 4 sets w/ Fat Gripz]
Today was my first workout on the Anaconda Protocol 2. Lots of liquid to consume prior to working out but felt like I had a ton of injury. Barely missed the PR on bench. Enjoyed the Fat Gripz work–the bar really does feel like a toy when you take them off. Going to start using these a lot in my accessory movements and in the warmups for my main movements.
Workout 2 - Wednesday 16 June 2010
Deadlift (531): 315 (3) [Didn’t attempt 355 or 400]
I was very disappointed here. Warmups felt fine (use Fat Gripz) and I was getting my hips under the bar well, but when I moved to the working sets I completely shat the bed. My back popped on the third rep and I didn’t go into idiot mode and start forcing reps this time. Just ended the set, packed it up and went home.
Workout 3 - Thursday 17 June 2010
OHP (531): 135, 155, 170 (8)
Pulldown (9x8): 100, 100, 100, 110, 110(6), x, x, x, x
OHP (5x10@110): 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 [First 4 sets w/ Fat Gripz]
Good workout here for the OHP. The pulldown machine at the gym I was using was a piece of shit and I couldn’t get good lat activation using it, so I stopped way short of my reps. Didn’t do facepulls for the same reason.
Workout 4 - Sunday 20 June 2010
Squat (531): 325, 380, 415 (5)
Leg Curl (5x12): 100, 100, 115, 115 (10), 100
Squats felt strong. Left reps in the tank. Felt like I was tight in the core, but still didn’t want to push it. came back to do my BBB Squat and had pretty much exhausted myself so I went home.
Cycle 7 - Wave D (Deload)
Pretty much didn’t do shit this week. Went in and benched and did a bunch of silly “pump” exercises just for fun, and did some light squats on another day (260 for 5 felt heavy for some reason–just wasn’t in it). Didn’t do any OHP or DL’s this week.
Cycle 7 Recap
This was by far the shittiest training cycle I’ve had on 5-3-1. I got off to an awesome start with a new DL PR, but the back injury later that week completely fucked me for this cycle. Coming up in Cycle 8 I am going to start rehabbing the shit out of my back since it has been nearly a month and hasn’t gone away on its own (unsurprisingly I might add).
Also hoping to get my hormone issues lined out. I’m seeing a new doctor up in Philly who has an excellent track record. He sent me to get a whole lot of blood tests (19 vials worth!) so hopefully we can get to the bottom of what ails me and the PRs and Lean gains will start coming again.
Who knows, I might even keep my log up to date this next cycle. We shall see.
Cycle 8 - Wave A
Workout 1 - Monday 28 June 2010
NOTHING!
Not off to a good start. Monday was supposed to be my deadlift day. I had planned to go in and do the warmup and some rehab stuff, but I took a “nap” at around 7 pm and just didn’t wake up for the rest of the night. Ooops. At least I get a few more days to rest my back before squatting.
Workout 2 - Tuesday 29 June 2010
Bench (3x5): 200, 235, 265 (9)
1 Arm DB Row w/ Fat Gripz (3x10): 65, 65, 65
Pullthrus (5x12): Some weight
Shitty bench day. I had gotten this weight for 11 back in January, and needed 12-13 for a new calculate PR total. I did my warmups and first two working sets with Fat Gripz. I’m not so sure that I want to keep doing that for my money sets. Granted the bar did feel like a toy in my hands, but my form was off. I took the hand off with my arms spread too far apart and knew it after a couple reps, but didn’t want to rerack so I just pushed through. I had also given blood earlier today for my hormone tests (19 vials worth!) so taht may have helped land me south of vag as well. Either way, it was a shitty day in the gym.
I tried doing some rows, but my back just wouldn’t hold up. I finished my working set of rows, but skipped kroc rows and just went straight to some back rehab work with the pullthrus. Made sure to flex my glutes hard and drive my hips through. Felt a huge pump in my back afterwards. I’m hoping thats a good thing. We shall see.
Dude, you GAVE BLOOD. You’re good, man. Don’t sweat it.
Take care of that back.
So given my recent training injuries and general workout attitude, I have decided to refocus my training for a while. The back injury has finally healed up to the point that I am mobile, but I definitely don’t feel comfortable putting heavy loads on it yet. I’ve also been dealing with a nagging shoulder/scapula injury on my right side. I think this is just due to muscle imbalances since the front of my deltoid is disproportionately stronger than my medial and rear delts.
I’ve decided to focus on more of a hypertrophy approach for a while. I think trying to put on some mass will help insulate me from injuries in the future, since a long limbed guy like myself should be much bigger overall than I actually am. This will also help bring up my nagging weak points that I will continue to neglect if I keep powerlifting…fucking one track minds…
I started I, Bodybuilder on Monday, 20 July. I’m using the Anaconda Protocol 2 without the Alpha GPC for now since I have somehow managed to misplace the bottle that came with my package…fuckin ay…
Here is the log:
I’ll also be reposting my workouts in here since that template kind of sucks. First two workouts have been awesome. Details to follow.